By Dee Tadlock, Ph.D.
Each month we bring you a column by Read Right developer, Dee Tadlock, Ph.D. Read Right empowers kids with the philosophy that, if a child isn’t learning to read, it’s not because there’s something wrong with the child. Rather there’s something “wrong” with the way the child is being taught! Let’s show you what we mean.
Can you understand the meaning of the following paragraph?
Aoccdrnig to rseerach, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are prseetend. The olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht frist and lsat ltteres are at the rghit pclae. Th rset cn be a toatl mses nd yu cn sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
You probably got the meaning even though you couldn’t have sounded out most of the words! Nor could you have recognized any of them by sight! Now try this:
With hocked gems financing him Our hero bravely defied all scornful laughter That tried to prevent his scheme Your eyes deceive he had said An egg not a table correctly typifies this unexplored planet Now three sturdy sisters sought proof…1
You didn’t get the meaning, did you? Even though you “read” all the words the first time, you probably didn’t understand the author’s meaning. Now read it again and this time think: Christopher Columbus1.
The Read Right system was developed by a mom, Dr. Dee Tadlock, who was determined to help her son, a struggling reader. This required her to discover how the brain learns to read successfully. During her extensive research, she found that reading (whether early reading development or remediation) must be grounded in meaning, not decoding. Since 1991, Dr. Tadlock and Read Right Systems have helped thousands of children, teens, and adults in the United States, Canada, China, and Germany through school-based programs, telephone tutoring, and at-home programs.
Read Right’s premise that all children can learn to read, plus their phenomenal success rate, is why NSFM partners with Read Right. Reading empowers the lives of children and, together with Read Right, we are in the business of empowering kids.
1J. Dooling and R. Lachman, 1972, “Effects of Comprehension on Retention of Prose” Journal of Experimental Psychology, Volume 88, pages 216-222.
October is the month of my mother’s birthday, and as I contemplate what I want to share with NSFM readers this month, my thoughts keep returning to her. She will be eighty-eight on this year’s birthday, and I have many years of remembrances of her. Predominant among them are the memories of her reading to my older brother and me.
I feel certain that reading out loud to us started sooner than my earliest memory, but the earliest experience I can recreate is this: my mother sitting on a straight-backed kitchen chair in the just-enough space between my brother’s twin bed and mine in the small room we shared; my brother and I tucked in for the night and listening with rapt attention as my mother read at least one chapter every night from the book she had chosen for us. (She frequently could be cajoled into “Just one more chapter, please” because the truth of it was she was enjoying the book as much as we were.)
What were these books that enthralled the three of us and left us begging for more? They were what might be categorized as children’s classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Black Beauty, The Littlest Colonel, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates; Mrs. Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch, Peter Pan, and many others.
Although my own children didn’t share a small room, I eagerly sat them down and started reading the same children’s classics night after night, excited at the opportunity to pass down the thrill of those wonderful books. But my children weren’t interested! Although they were the same age as my brother and I had been when we were totally captivated by the same books, it didn’t take long for my kids to leave the couch. I tried one after another with the same result. Finally I acknowledged that I was not going to be able to recreate the experience for them.
Frankly, I am not surprised that my two boys were not interested in these classics at such an early age. When I first decided to continue this family tradition, the books seemed too advanced; the print was dense and there were no pictures. Furthermore, many of the sentences were long, and the language was complex. They were used to listening to me read books with pictures on every page and less complex language—books that I returned to for our reading rituals once they had convincingly voted against the classics with their feet (so to speak).
I phoned my brother to see if my memory was off, but he confirmed that we were, indeed, only five and six when the nightly readings from children’s classics first took place. I wondered what accounted for this generational difference? Why did my brother and I relish our nightly routine, carrying vivid memories of it to this day, more than half a century later, yet my children were unwilling to participate?
A Visual Era
I am not sure why my children rejected the children’s classics, but I think it may be related to the constant visual input they were exposed to that my brother and I weren’t. Our exposure was limited to the natural environment and we were used to imagining our own illustrations, whereas my children had become used to having visual stimuli provided for them at every turn. Television immediately comes to mind as one such source of ready-made visuals back then, and today, things like video games and DVDs heighten that influence (most young children have a large movie library—sometimes bigger than their book libraries!).
Becoming engrossed in a story from a book with no pictures would be a huge departure from the world that today’s young children normally inhabit. Today’s children’s books are wonderfully illustrated in vivid color—but the resulting experience of being read to is quite a different experience than being read to from a book where language alone inspires children to build the pictures in their minds.
At even earlier ages than five and six, my children enjoyed the stories I made up. There were no pictures and their imaginations had to provide any illustrations. But, of course the language was different—less formal and more conversational than the language in the children’s classics I had listened to all those years ago. As my children grew up, they eventually read most of those classics on their own, but I still marvel at what a difference in appreciation we had for those books at an early age.
Build Reading Memories
The major lesson I offer from this trip down memory lane is that instilling a love of reading and a value for books and the written word can begin early in your child’s life. Whether that reading is of children’s classics, picture books, comic books, or the Sunday funnies is irrelevant. Follow your children’s lead and read what they want to hear, but do read to them, and read often. Take a book along when you go to a doctor’s or dentist’s appointment with your child and read to them in the waiting room. Read in the car on long trips—or even short ones! Establishreading rituals: before naptime, before bedtime, when your child isn’t feeling well, or when she’s hurt to make her feel better. Tell your children that you look forward to the day when they will be able to read aloud to you.
Consider having a monthly ritual of buying a new book for your child’s library, and refer to it as that: Say “We’re going to the book store today to buy a new book for your library. You can pick whatever book you want.” Or, if it makes more sense for your family, schedule a weekly trip to the library to choose books to read together. Give books as presents. Let your child see that you value books as gifts for him or her, but also for your friends and family. This can continue as long as your child is living under your roof—and beyond. I still get books from my mother for Christmas and for my birthday, and they always evoke an authentic smile and warm memories of books.
About the Author:
Dee Tadlock, Ph.D. is the founder of Read Right Systems and primary author of Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading. www.ReadRight.com
October 2007